The construction industry has long included painting as part of the finish work of a job. This finish work is often performed by professional painters; however, many "do-it-yourselfers" also carry out painting jobs on their own homes and buildings.
While many people enjoy painting, one of the more distracting occurrences of a painting job is the dripping of a paint brush when such brush is not in use. For example, if the painter places the brush on top of a paint can so he can perform other tasks, the brush has a tendency to drip down the sides of the paint can. The drips can be a problem if they fall onto a finished floor, and can cause the paint can to be difficult to re-close if they fall into the cap-receiving and locking groove on that paint can. While newspaper and drop cloths can be used to protect the floor, such items can become messy and burdensome to use, and do not fully protect the paint container itself. Furthermore, while paint can be scraped out of the paint can groove, this protection is often not effected, and the paint can is not tightly re-sealed and paint may tend to dry out during storage. It is also noted that permitting paint to drip from a brush onto either the can or onto a support surface can be wasteful of paint as well as wasteful of time necessary to clean up the paint thus dripped.
Furthermore, resting a paint brush on top of a paint can is also precarious since the brush often falls either into the paint can or onto the surface beneath or adjacent to the can. This is quite undesirable since it is wasteful of both paint and the time required to clean up the paint that splatters off of the brush when it falls onto the surrounding surfaces, or to clean the handle of the brush if it falls into the paint can. Still further, simply resting the brush on top of a paint can may cause some of the paint from the brush to fall out of the paint can. Even if most of the paint does, in fact, fall back into the paint can, some of the paint falling out of the can may create problems. Properly balancing the brush on the paint can may require more attention than a painter wishes to devote to this simple task, and the balance may not always be what it should be.
While the art has included devices for removing excess paint from paint brushes, and while these devices have been somewhat successful in some instances, such devices can be expensive and time consuming to use. For this reason, many painters do not use them. some of these device also tend to waste paint, and can be difficult to clean thereby increasing their costs due to the time required to clean them.
Therefore, there is a need for a device which can be used in conjunction with a paint container to prevent paint from paint brush that is temporarily out of use from splattering onto a surface beneath or adjacent to the paint can or from dripping onto the can, yet which will be simple and convenient to use and clean and which will be inexpensive to purchase, yet which will securely support a paint brush in position to reliably and efficiently direct any paint from that brush back into the paint can.